When the children are in the woods, away from all of the busyness of modern life, they settle more deeply into themselves.

"A young child's primary task is to learn about their own abilities and the world around them through exploration and play," said Rachel Kennedy, the early childhood education teacher at The Hartsbrook School.

This fall, the Hadley-based school will launch its "Forest Classroom," a program for children, 2.9 to 6 plus years of age, in which Kennedy will introduce the mixed-aged group of boys and girls to nature and outdoor exploration on the school's 46-acre campus. The program, five mornings a week, adds to existing outdoor learning experiences, such as farm camp, and land stewardship, offered through the Waldorf school, an independent day school based on the teaching vision of Rudolf Steiner.

In conjunction with this approach to learning, Forbes Library, and the school, will present a showing of the award-winning “School’s Out – Lessons from a Forest Kindergarten" on April 26 at 2 p.m. at the library at 20 West St., in Northampton. The film, directed by Lisa Molomot, compares how students learn in an outdoor kindergarten, in Switzerland, with that of a public school kindergarten in New Haven, Conn.

Kennedy, who has taught at Hartsbrook for seven years, grew up in Maine, is a graduate of Sterling (Kansas) College, and Antioch University. An interview follows with her about the outdoor classroom program, designed for "freedom of movement, and purposeful work," and how it is part of a movement to get young children outside to play and learn.

Why do you feel, as an early childhood educator, that children need to get back in touch with nature?

Most parents can remember time spent playing outdoors every day in childhood. Today's children spend far less time outside and indeed have very little unstructured time at all. Our children are being raised indoors, in structured activities with few opportunities for physical movement.

Researchers from the University of Glasgow followed the activity of 78 three year olds for a week, and found they were physically active for only 20 minutes a day. A young child's primary task is to learn about their own abilities and the world around them through exploration and play. Freedom of movement, self-directed imaginative play and time in nature are three timeless tenets of early childhood. As we restrict these essential elements in our children's lives, we are interfering with processes that have been an important part of the neurological and physiological development of human beings for millennia. And we wonder why children are having more difficulty sitting still, attending to tasks, and processing sensory information then ever before.

How did this concept of a Forest Classroom develop? What are some of the benefits?

Outdoor play as learning has been at the core of early childhood education since its origins in the 1840s. Friedrich Froebel opened the first kindergarten outdoors 150 years ago. Only in the last 30 years have we come to see early learning as separate from play and from the natural world. Today forest kindergartens are very popular in Europe, receiving state funding since 1993. There are currently 450 forest kindergartens in Germany alone. In the U.S., as flaws in the "No Child Left Behind" act come to light, and the benefits of the “No Child Left Indoors” movement take hold, outdoor early childhood classrooms are on the rise.

In September, we are beginning a Forest Classroom. The idea is to have a classroom, without walls, where the children are surrounded by the rhythm, wonder, and beauty of the natural world in each season. Through seasonal songs, stories and activities, self-directed play, freedom of movement, and purposeful work, the children will experience a deeply enriching and integrating educational experience. We will spend our mornings outdoors and return indoors for lunch, rest and respite from extreme weather.

Outdoor play is an essential element of all of our early childhood programs at Hartsbrook, where two days a week we spend much of the morning walking and playing in the forest, and two hours each day we play outdoors in the yard. Our experiences, with children in the forest on our walk days, have been the primary inspiration for our forest classroom. When the children are in the woods, away from all of the busyness of modern life, they settle more deeply into themselves. Play deepens, collaboration flows easily and disagreements melt away.

When we return to the classroom the children do not need to be led by a teacher into quiet stillness, but have come to a quiet space in themselves from their time in the forest.

Here are some of the benefits the Forest Classroom provides for children: full-body movement which establishes essential foundations for learning, rich sensory experiences providing opportunities for full sensory integration and individual adjustment to sensory stimulus, improved cognitive activity, mental acuity, and concentration, a natural environment for teamwork and social learning, health benefits associated with fitness, fresh air and sunshine, joyful participation in learning and increased self-confidence.

What made you go into early childhood education? How did growing up in Maine influence your outlook on child development?

Early childhood is a magical time, a time of wonder, imagination and connectedness. Young children are so deeply connected to what is essential in life. They just need space and time, free from interference and distraction, for this intuitive wisdom to grow and flourish. Time and space is not easy to come by these days. But we can set it aside for the preservation of childhood.

As a child, the cultural norm of children playing outdoors provided me with a wide range of experiences. On my father's homestead in the Maine woods, my brothers and I spent hours and hours exploring, imagining, building and adventuring on our own. My mother lived in the city, but still we went outside and played independently all afternoon. We played ball in the street, walked to the park or the corner store. In both settings, while we played, we were developing self-confidence, problem solving and decision making abilities, social skills, foundational experiences of biology, physics and architecture.

What do you enjoy doing, as an adult, in the outdoors? How do you keep your own family engaged in nature?

Time spent outdoors continues to have a profound impact on my well being. When concerns of the day are weighing on me, it only takes walking outdoors and listening to the birds, or sinking my hands into the garden soil, to make everything seem lighter and more possible.

As a family ,it is sometimes hard to carve time out of the busy week to be outdoors together, but it can be the glue that keeps us connected when we make it a priority. Sundays are our day to do something outdoors together, whether it's hiking, skiing, biking, tossing a frisbee, working together in the yard or garden,or walking in our neighborhood.

Our children spend time outside on their own, but as they get older the technological world has a greater allure, especially for my 14-year old son. I am trusting that, if we are able to keep our love of the natural world alive as a family, and encourage him to pursue his interests in the outdoors, computers will take their place in his life, but will not supplant his connection to nature.

What stresses do you see on young children today? How do you see their development being influenced by technology?

Our lives are so busy and we are so plugged in. With smart phones and smart cars and smart screens in all parts of our lives, it is getting harder and harder to just be present, with ourselves, with each other, and with our children. The latest research finds children six to seven hours in front of a screen. There is no better restorative tonic for the pressures of modern living than time in nature.

Have you seen the film that is to be shown? What do you think it imparts to audiences?

While the children in the film take risks we would not allow in a school setting in the U.S., I look forward to the conversation and fresh thinking it inspires.

How good a resource is the forest around the school?

We are so grateful each day for our 46-acre campus, nestled between farmland and the Seven Sisters Mountain Range, and the educational opportunities it provides for children, early childhood through high school. The largest piece of this property has been set aside as part of the Agricultural Preservation Restriction Program, allowing it to remain as agricultural open space in perpetuity. Through the grades the children connect to the natural world through gardening, caring for the farm animals, environmental studies, and outdoor adventuring. Last year the culminating experience for the 12th grade was a trip to Costa Rica to work with sea turtle preservation.